There is a growing demand for the incorporation of receptacles or slots to receive removable electronic modules, such as PCMCIA cards, in applications such as palmtop computers, notebook computers, sub-notebook computers and digital organizers. The receptacles or slots in these applications need to be able to accommodate modules, such as PCMCIA Type I, Type II and Type III cards. In the PCMCIA technical standard, the "Type" designates progressively thicker cards, with Type I being 3.3 mm, Type II 5.5 mm, Type III 10.5 mm. All of these cards share the same nominal length and width dimensions of 86.5 mm.times.54.0 mm along the base. The cards are designed such that all cards equal to or thinner than the capacity of the slot can be accommodated, e.g. a Type II slot can accommodate a Type I or Type II card, while a Type III slot accommodates a type I, II or III card. Accordingly, the receptacles or slots typically need a height or depth which is at least equal to the size of the largest size electronic card to be accommodated, and these dimensions must be accommodated within the overall size of the electronic device or personal computer.
There is a growing demand to minimize the overall size and cubic volume of many of these devices which accommodate removable modules such as PCMCIA cards, during storage or transport. One technique to accomplish this goal has been to modify the keyboards to have one or more sections which can be folded on to each other to further reduce the overall size of the product during storage and/or transport as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,758 to Margolin, U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,644 to Crisan, U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,779 to Conway et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,453 to Chiu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,569 to Sellers, U.S. Design Pat. No. 254,554 to Genaro et al., U.S. Design Pat. No. 299,030 to Menn, U.S. Design Pat. No. 322,246 to Izaki, and U.S. Design Pat. No. 324,035 to Izaki which are all herein incorporated by reference. Similar attempts to reduce the overall size of the product by modifying the receptacle or slot have met with limited success.
One prior technique for reducing the overall size of the product is simply to eliminate the receptacle or slot from these applications. However, in view of the growing demand for these receptacles or slots, this is not a desirable solution. Another prior technique, which is widely used, and familiar to those skilled in the art, is to incorporate a "stacked" connector configuration, which can accommodate a single Type III card, or two Type II or Type I cards one on top of the other. The disadvantages to this approach are first, that the volume of the Type III card is always consumed in the product, whether any type III cards are being used or not, and second, that when a Type III card is inserted, it is the only card that can be used because it blocks access to the second slot.
Another solution has been to locate the receptacle or slot in an accessory which is coupled to the product via a connecting cable. With this solution, the overall size of the product is reduced, however the operator of the product must still carry the accessory with the receptacle or slot which can accommodate the largest size electronic card that the user might require, whenever the user wants to use an electronic card. Accordingly, this also is not a desirable solution.